I'm new to the fretless world, and I've seen stainless steel and nylon flatwonds.
I was wondering, what's the difference between those too?

Mr. Pickle

10-28-2005, 08:00 PM

well, i dont think nylon strings are actually nylon, when talking about bass. i believe they are steel strings with a nylon coating. kind of like elixer and plastic. i could be wrong...

LewsTherin

10-28-2005, 08:47 PM

You have:

Flatwounds -- these are the metal ones. Theyre wound with a flat metal wire, as opposed to a round metal wire. These are bassier and thumpier than roundwounds. Theres also groundwounds, which are roundwound strings ground flat. These have the typical flatwound sound with a bit more treble and growl.

Tapewounds -- these are about as thumpy as they come. They consist of a steel core (in order to work with electromag pickups) wound with nylon tape. Hence the tapewound. These are as bassy and thumpy as strings get. Very thick sound. Also, unlike traditional flats, these WILL maintain and build your calluses, and you will most likely blister at first (not bad though). The only company ive seen with these is Fender.